Editing 8 Flora (section)

==Characteristics==
[[File:FloraOrbit.png|thumb|left|The orbit of 8 Flora compared with the orbits of Earth, Mars and Jupiter]][[File:Moon and Asteroids 1 to 10.svg|thumb|left|Size comparison: the first 10 asteroids profiled against Earth's [[Moon]]. Flora is third from the right.]]
Lightcurve analysis indicates that Flora's pole points towards [[ecliptic coordinate system|ecliptic coordinates]] (β, λ) = (16°, 160°)  with a 10° uncertainty.<ref name="Torppa2003" /> This gives an [[axial tilt]] of 78°, plus or minus ten degrees.

Flora is the parent body of the [[Flora family]] of asteroids, and by far the largest member, comprising about 80% of the total mass of this family. Nevertheless, Flora was almost certainly disrupted by the impact(s) that formed the family, and is probably a gravitational aggregate of most of the pieces.{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}

Flora's [[spectrum]] indicates that its surface composition is a mixture of [[silicate]] rock (including [[pyroxene]] and [[olivine]]) and [[nickel]]-[[iron]] metal. Flora, and the whole [[Flora family]] generally, are good candidates for being the parent bodies of the [[L chondrite]] meteorites.<ref name="Nesvorny">{{cite journal| first=D.| last= Nesvorný| title=The Flora Family: A Case of the Dynamically Dispersed Collisional Swarm?| journal=Icarus| volume= 157| issue=1| pages= 155–172| date=2002| doi=10.1006/icar.2002.6830| bibcode=2002Icar..157..155N|display-authors=etal}}</ref> This meteorite type comprises 35% of meteorites impacting the [[Earth]].<ref name="nhm">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/data/metcat/search/metsPerGroup.dsml|title=The Catalogue of Meteorites|date=2022 |publisher=Natural History Museum|doi=10.5519/tqfuwle7 |access-date=28 May 2020 |last1=Grady |first1=Monica |chapter=Meteorites }}</ref>